Update: On Wednesday, May 5, the Senate voted not to repeal the Methane and Waste Reduction Rule by using the CRA.
In the latest attack on our nation’s clean air, water and public lands, the Senate has the BLM’s Methane and Waste Reduction Rule in its crosshairs. The vote which is expected to occur any day now would eliminate standards set by the BLM that limit natural gas waste from drilling on public lands. The House of Representatives has already used the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to roll back these common sense standards that ensure natural gas is captured and sold, instead of being flared and vented.
Oil and gas wells currently waste methane worth more than $330 million annually by burning it up instead of saving it. As a result, taxpayers lose royalty payments that would add up to over $800 million over the next decade. These royalties would be split about evenly between the federal government and the states, and then used to help fund education, infrastructure projects, such as road and bridges, and mitigation projects to address the impacts of energy development to western communities.
Vented and flared methane pollution also contributes to Montana’s extreme weather, wildfires, and low stream flows that all increasingly pose threats to our lands and wildlife. The BLM Methane and Waste Reduction Rule is a win-win-win for our land, wildlife, and our economy: It reduces pollution and capture a wasted energy resource, while generating royalty revenue on our public lands.
If this rule is disapproved by the Congressional Review Act, then it undermines the ability of the BLM to regulate the waste of natural gas on public lands in the future. Using the CRA would create a problematic situation preventing the BLM from safeguarding publicly-owned methane and would go directly against its legal obligations to the taxpayer.
The BLM’s Methane and Waste Reduction Rule makes sense for taxpayers, and for public land users. The rule is supported by businesses, public health and conservation organizations, and individual recreationists. According to the 2017 Conservation in the West poll by Colorado College found, 84 percent of Montanans support requiring oil and gas companies to use updated equipment and new technology to capture methane emissions instead of wasting it by burning it off.
Natural resources on public lands are owned by all Americans and the wasteful management of these resources result in losses to the taxpayers. If oil and gas development are to proceed on public lands in the West then taxpayers need to be getting a fair return.
